(what's arriving in your maibox?)

handwritten entries…

Today I was going to share my recent Halloween doin’s — the postcard edition I’m working on, the rubber stamp I’d been carving to use in said edition. However, my Halloween cards remain unfinished, due to the stupid cold I find myself encumbered with. I guess I’ll put Halloween on hold until next week.

the days are getting shorter & shadows are growing longer!

Instead, I’ll show you something else paper-ish and book-y.

don’t call it “frisco”…

Two weeks ago, I was running to catch the train at Montgomery Station and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a beautiful, old ledger book. Lying face up in the ticket taker’s booth, the ledger appeared to just be hanging out. It seemed like such an anomaly, especially in a San Francisco Muni station. I continued on to the train platform.

yes, this is the “talk window” where you’d converse with the ticket taker…

I didn’t make it very far.

Turning around, I headed back to the ticket booth. “Can I take a photo of your book?” I breathlessly asked. “I think it’s wonderful and I’d love to have a photo.” I knew that this would most likely lead to a why-would-you-want-to-take-a-photo-of-this? conversation, and I wasn’t let down. “This? It’s just a book,” the employee said disdainfully. “But I think it’s beautiful, ” I repeated. “What do you use it for?”

yep — EXACTLY like you imagined!

“We use it to record incidents that go on here in the station. You know, if somebody loses something or we have to call the police.”

“I see. I didn’t realize you still wrote everything down by hand.”

“Some stations do. Some stations don’t.”

It was clear that our conversation was meant to be short lived. I snapped my photos and (again) headed down to the platform. So what if I’d missed my train? Another one would be along shortly. As I waited, I thought about the fact that in this most tech-centric of cities, there was still a train station where notes are handwritten, what a rare thing that is these days.

from a bygone era…

I wondered when this change away from the handwritten had taken place, had I even noticed that it was occurring? I feel like I’ve been aware of it for sometime now: every month seems to bring a “death of cursive writing” article in my newsfeed, every semester presents a fresh faced group of students who’ve never written a postcard (no joke).

A single person cannot stop the march of technology; this is the way of our world now. An incident like the one above reminds me that there is a balance to be maintained with both our “retro-tech” and our “future-tech”; discovering what that balance is will be different for each person. For me: I like to have a foot in both worlds, able to reach many readers at once via a blog (like this one!) or connecting with people individually through the mail. It is this choice that we have that makes all the difference.

Halloween next week, I promise. 😉

–JH

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16 Responses

Oh silly me! Instead of thinking about the dichotomy of that handsome ledger in a high-tech world, I immediately went off to the “hmmm… If they have it, then it must be possible to still get one…” School of thought. Where do you suppose they found it??

Do it! Do it NOW! (you should DEFINITELY have some sort of accounting/tracking method for your incoming/outgoing mail…)
–JH
PS: would you hate me if I told you that I find these at garage sales on an “every so often” basis?…

At the Montgomery Street train station, a ticket taker sitting in the booth, ready to talk to customers and occasionally recording “incidents” by hand in the old fashioned ledger — I see the beginnings of a great story. Would it begin, “On a dark and foggy night”?

Maybe more like: “The stifling, glassed in booth felt like an aquarium — one where she was subjected to the vagaries of public transit riders and San Francisco’s street life.”
Or something like that. 😉
–JH

It’s funny how some people can be so immune to the things that delight another person! What a great find in the train station office…can you imagine how fun it would be to page through that Ledger and read up on all of the “incidents”?! Someday maybe it will be a flea market find!!

Well, I expect a certain level of stand offish-ness when it comes to Muni employees…they have a lot of crazy that they have to deal with on a fairly regular basis! Someone expressing delight or wonder in any aspect of their job? That’s probably weirder to them than a YEAR’s worth of insanity…
I have found a few (small size) ledger books in the past at flea markets and such here in SF. One of the books was from a night nurse at SF General, and it followed all of the patients in the ward over the course of three months — their medications, incoming/outgoing mail, visitors, ect. Those are the kinds of things I’m always on the lookout for!
–JH

classes & sightings

Holiday DIY with Jennie Hinchcliff BINDERYDecember 13, 2017 at 6:30 pm – 9:30 pmRegistrations: This class has a minimum enrollment of 3 students. All enrollment will be updated on this document and sent to you via email. Please send all questions to nina@sfcb.org.

Intro to Bookbinding -- PLUS! BINDERYDecember 17, 2017 at 1:00 pm – 5:00 pmRegistrations: This class has a minimum enrollment of 3 students. All enrollment will be updated on this document and sent to you via email. Please send all questions to nina@sfcb.org.

Introduction to Bookbinding with Jennie Hinchcliff BINDERYDecember 29, 2017 at 6:30 pm – 9:30 pmRegistrations: This class has a minimum enrollment of 3 students. All enrollment will be updated on this document and sent to you via email. Please send all questions to nina@sfcb.org.